The Horseman

How long has it been since I’ve felt safe and loved? Katelyn hugged the book to her chest, thumbing through all the years in her mind. The years of loneliness and unhappiness married to Brett. The bleak decade after her mother had married Cal Willman. The lean, desperate times after her father’s death when her mother could not make ends meet and crumbled beneath the burden of it.

A long time.

The clock bonged the hour ten times from the emptiness of the dark kitchen, echoing through the house and stirring Dillon from his reading. He watched her over the top of his book.

“It’s damn good to have you here in my parlor.” He grinned, that bashful, self-conscious smile of his that made him appear both vulnerable and invincible. A tough western man with a tender soul.

“It’s good to be here.”

“Yeah?” One brow quirked, as if he were surprised. “Then you don’t regret marrying me.”

“This is the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Her confession stunned him. Dillon marked his page and put the book aside, overwhelmed with the emotion flaring to life inside him. He’d seen it over and over again, and he didn’t know how wealthy people could be so poor.

He could see it in Katelyn, the devastation of it, the wonder in her eyes whenever he held her, as if surprised he’d want to do that. As if it had never occurred to her that any man would desire and cherish her.

It made him furious how she’d been treated. He could see the wariness in her as he climbed to his feet and grabbed the poker from the iron hook. Wariness. She’d been hurt, and he hoped to high heaven that she didn’t think he’d ever hurt her.

Maybe, he reasoned, hers was a deeper kind of distrust. That she wondered if he would be good to her for the long haul of a marriage, the day in and day out of it. The tough times that inevitably came along through the cycles of a lifetime.

I’ll show you. I’ll teach you that there are some things that can never be broken. His love for her was one of them. He broke apart the crumbly logs and watched the embers glow and brighten as air hit them.

That’s what he needed to do. Break apart those dark places in her heart. Give them light and air. Let them glow until there was no more doubt, no more fear. He would show Katelyn what her husband was made of.

And she would come to believe it.

His ankle popped. His knee creaked. Being a horseman was a demanding job. And now that he had Katelyn in his life, he wouldn’t need to be on the road, traveling from job to job.

For the first time in a while, he had a real home. And the woman of his dreams to share it with.

There was just one problem. And it was an enormous one. He was a direct man, practical, who took life one step at a time. And so that’s what he’d done with Katelyn. First he’d concentrated on helping her, making sure she got a chance to know him. Then he worked on getting her to marry him. And now that she was here, he wanted her to love him, genuine and true and forever. The way he loved her.

The trouble was, the thing he hadn’t considered was that she needed him. He’d given her a choice in the hotel room-money to last her at least a year if she used it wisely or his wedding ring. She’d chosen him, and he was damn glad. Damn proud to have her in his life. That was for absolute certain.

But would she be happy here? Or would she grow discontent after the novelty of learning to cook and keep house wore off, like polish on a new shoe, and begin wishing for her old life with a cook and maids and a fancy lifestyle to amuse her?

She was like a priceless china figurine on a handmade wooden shelf. She didn’t belong here, even though she wore his ring on her hand. A symbol of the vows she’d made to him. A promise to love him forever.

Would it be possible? She might not even intend for it to happen. Feelings changed sometimes. They did, without explanation, without meaning for it to happen.

Time would tell, he figured. And in the meantime, he’d do what he could to bind her to him. To love her so hard and true, it might make her belong here. Belong to him rightfully and forever without question.

“Hey, ready to go up to bed?” He lifted the book out of her hands gently. If she protested, he’d give it back.

She sparkled, like the first star in a night sky, tentative but unable to hold back the light. “I suppose it is getting late.”

Was that her roundabout way of saying she wanted this night to be different than the others? Please.

He’d been hard all evening. All he had to do was be alone with her. Showing her how to boil potatoes on the stove, cooking side by side and being able to touch her, just touch her, run his hand across her back as he reached around her for a hot pad to lift the kettle lid with. To stop and breathe in the scent of her hair and shampoo as he set the beef steaks to frying.

He was harder now and wanted her with a fierceness that he’d never felt. A hunger unparalleled. He set the book on the floor with a thud and held out his hand. She rose from the chair, a sensual womanly movement that stirred his desire. Her fingertips lightly stroked the center of his palm as she grabbed his hand that kindled his need for her.

And led him up the stairs. This night would be different. He was going to get to hold her all night long, her nakedness against his. Desire crackled through him, roaring hotter and higher.

He watched the sway of her fanny beneath that pretty calico dress. And the curve of her neck and the subtle sway of her perfect breasts, which moved with her every step.

I’m a lucky man. Without a single doubt. She was like grace come into his life, a haven from the pain of loneliness. A balm to a deeper wound he hadn’t been aware of until now.

The wound of not being loved. It was an unhappiness that was gone, and looking back, he could see how discontent he had been. It was why he moved from ranch to ranch, always traveling. To cover up the fear that no woman would ever think he was good enough to love.

Katelyn loved him. She’d said so, and he’d felt the truth of it. He was still afraid she might change her mind.

And now that he had a sample of what it was like to be loved by her, why, it was paradise. How could he go back to living without her?

He couldn’t. It was as simple as that.

As Katelyn led him into their bedroom and searched through the dark for matches to light the lamp, he lifted her braid and kissed the sensitive spot just above her collar.

She drew in a surprised intake of breath, as if she hadn’t expected this but liked it. She leaned against him, already surrendering, already wanting.

He drew her into his arms, her back to his chest and, chin on her head, began unfastening the buttons that kept her breasts from his touch.

He’d waited long enough. He’d not wait another second to bind her to him, make her a little more his. He brushed the dress from her shoulders and the garments beneath and led her to their bed. He laid her down and made love to her, his wife, his love.

He gave her all the pleasure he knew how to give. Gentle touches and hot kisses and slow deep thrusts that made her arch up to take him deeper. That made her fingers dig into his back as she surrendered. It was his name she called when she broke around him, his name she whispered as she kissed his face afterward.

She clung to him when, sated and full of his seed, sleep claimed her.

Even in her dreams, she held fast to him.

Chapter Sixteen

Wasn’t it a beautiful day? Katelyn couldn’t believe how light she felt. As weightless as those tiny snowflakes floating in a crisp morning sky. It was because she’d awakened in the warmth of Dillon’s arms, tucked against his chest as if he thought she was the most precious thing to him.